Lojban: The Logical Language

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la lojbangirz.—The Logical Language Group, Inc.

Contact information

What is The Logical Language Group?

The Logical Language Group, Inc. is a non-profit organization, the embodiment of the Loglan/Lojban community. We were founded to complete the language development process, to develop and publish teaching materials, to organize and teach the community, to promote applications of Lojban, and to initiate and lead research efforts in linguistics, language education, and other areas related to Lojban. Simply put, our purpose is to serve you in all manner of things Lojbanic. The Logical Language Group is not affiliated with The Loglan Institute, Inc., the organization founded by James Cooke Brown.

The Logical Language Group is also called "la lojbangirz." (/lah-lozh-BAHN-geerz./), its Lojban name. It was founded informally in 1987, and incorporated in 1988. The U. S. Internal Revenue Service approved our status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational/scientific charity in 1989, making donations and grants to the organization deductible under U. S. tax law.

How does The Logical Language Group serve the community?

We try to keep the community informed. Not everyone has the time available to participate in all of our activities. A newsletter, "le lojbo karni" (LK), is sent to everyone in the community. A longer journal, "ju'i lobypli" (JL), is also published for those with more serious interest. JL contains discussions of features of the language, debates on research issues and applications, letters from the community and responses, and a growing quantity of Lojban writings and translations.

Our publications are free of advertisements (other than our own ordering information, and occasional mention of individuals and organizations who have contributed particular service to our efforts), and we do not sell our mailing list. Our publications are distributed as cheaply as possible to encourage new people to participate. In the interest of attracting the widest audience possible, we are committed to distributing as much material as possible using the 'Shareware' concept for computer software and a similar policy for printed publications. This policy retains our copyrights but allows you, with relatively little restriction, to copy our materials for your friends, as long as you don't charge for the copies. We also ask that recipients of copies register with us, so that we know who has our materials. Such registration does not require contribution.

Certain materials that we publish contain information that we place in the public domain. All language definition information is considered to be public.

You can participate in the Lojban community at several levels of activity, listed on the detachable registration form that accompanies this brochure. Contributor's costs can range from as little as $5-$10 per year to receive only "le lojbo karni", to greater amounts for people actively learning the language. We automatically send you materials based on your indicated level of activity; this minimizes individual order processing and simplifies our paperwork, keeping our costs down.

If you are attempting to learn the language, we provide as much help as we can to assist in this process. We will put you in touch with Lojbanists who might be interested in studying or communicating with you in the language. You can also send your writings to us for review, or for indirect exchange with others. Grammatically correct writings may be selected for printing in our publications. We try to foster research and social interaction among those who are learning, or who have already learned the language. We aid such people in organizing, leading, and teaching formal classes and study groups, and will sponsor affiliated groups in local areas where non-profit sponsorship brings useful benefits.

We also conduct an annual (July or August) celebration of the language and community, called "LogFest", in conjunction with our annual business meeting in the Washington DC area. We also expect to support other local meetings and gatherings as the community grows.

We are seeking avenues to engage in larger research efforts and to actively work on applications for the language. Thus we are seeking grants and contracts, as well as financial and technical assistance from individuals, companies, and universities. These are a relatively low priority now, but their importance is expected to grow as the teaching materials are completed and the language stabilization is completed. Ideas and information in these areas are welcome.

Of course, we also try to publicize the language. Our representatives attend meetings and give presentations on the language. We distribute these brochures. Through our efforts, and with your help, the community of Lojbanists is rapidly growing.

Loglan/Lojban has been developed almost totally by volunteer labor and small donations of money. Lojban attracts people who are willing to devote a lot of time and effort to seeing their dreams become reality. Thus, our only income has been money derived from sales of our publications, and donations from interested supporters.

The Logical Language Group publishes and sells materials on a balance/credit system. We distribute materials to people and ask that they contribute to cover the costs of those materials. All language definition information is considered in the public domain, and most Logical Language Group publications are distributed under a policy which allows not-for-charge copying and redistribution. Computer versions of many of our publications are available. We ask that people who receive our materials under any of these alternate means to register your interest in Lojban with us so we may better serve that community, and donate liberally so that we may continue to serve you.

We ask that you keep a positive account balance of up to a year or more of expected expenditures for orders, as indicated on our registration and order forms. Such balance money serves as our day-to-day operating funds. We will refund positive balance contributions within 6 weeks of your request. If you move without notifying us and we therefore cannot contact you, we will maintain your positive balance for a year before treating it as a donation.

Most materials that we sell require either prior payment, an informal commitment to pay on your part, or your statement that you cannot afford to pay for materials (in which case our supplying these materials is at our discretion). We attempt to flexibly support Lojbanists with financial constraints, and will accept reasonable offers of reduced or delayed payments subject to our financial condition, coupled with your commitment to actively maintain contact and involvement with the community through us. Obviously, the level of your prior and current activity and any commitments you make in learning the language or in volunteer work for "la lojbangirz." will be factored into our decision. la lojbangirz. has a special commitment to support non-U. S. Lojbanists, because so many of the language goals are dependent on building an international community of speakers, and because we recognize the difficulties caused by the international currency market and the relative wealth of nations. We can accept bank cheques in most currencies and international payment via Master Card and Visa. We also encourage groups to form and receive a single copy of our materials, copying or passing them to others so that the per-person costs remain low. We require a lower standard of contact and contribution from overseas Lojbanists when deciding on whether to continue sending our materials at reduced or no charge.

We ask that all recipients of our materials voluntarily contribute what you can, and to maintain sufficient funds in your balance to cover our suggested prices. These will be deducted automatically when we send you materials. We will notify you requesting more money when your balance becomes negative. We reserve the right to refuse orders when your balance is not fully paid, but again will make every effort to support those who support Lojban through their time, commitment, and money.

You have no legal obligation to pay for materials sent to you without your request, but such materials will be charged against your balance in the absence of any agreement otherwise, with adjustments made to that balance per agreement. If we accept an offer of reduced payment from you, we will charge that amount to your balance.

We ask all recipients of our materials to help us financially in any way you can. The Logical Language Group needs your gifts for support of the Loglan/Lojban project. Artificial languages are historically not financially lucrative, and have difficulty receiving outside support. The Logical Language Group, Inc. is prohibited by its bylaws from spending more than 10% of its expenses for administrative purposes, except by special agreement with a donor who agrees to cover such added costs in full.

Last modified: Mon Jun 27 23:12:09 PDT 2005

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